Fantasy sports game enhancements and platform

ABSTRACT

A method and system for playing a fantasy sport competition among a plurality of Users, includes transmitting a User roster comprising a User prioritized list of Players according to positions; and transmitting User selections of Enhancements, each Enhancement comprising a scoring exception from an adverse Player statistic for any Player the User roster comprises. Upon receiving the User rosters, the system stores the User roster in association with the League to facilitate scoring among the Users. Upon receiving the User selections of Enhancements, the system stores the Enhancements in association with the User roster. The system also receives statistics for Players at intervals over the course of the Season. Periodically and at the end of the Season, the system calculates scores of Users based upon the Player statistics and the Enhancements.

PRIORITY CLAIM

This application claims the benefit of provisional application Ser. No. 61/840,303 filed Jun. 27, 2013, the contents of which are incorporated by reference.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION

The present invention is a game played by several players on a network and more specifically a fantasy sports game.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

Fantasy sports have enjoyed a longer and more consistent growth over the three decades since they were introduced largely due to their inherent virality. Virality is a metric that has been borrowed from the field of epidemiology. It pertains to how quickly an element or content spreads through the population. Because of their reliance on public statistics generated either daily or weekly basis, the standings for any fantasy team are inherently asynchronous, which is to say that they do not require any two persons competing thereby to be communicatively connected to each other to play. Even more importantly, they rely upon and foster growth of a community of competitors, i.e. competition is only possible if a User “shares” his game with friends.

For purposes of clarity within this discussion, two terms will be defined that may or may not have their normal meaning to the reader. There is an inherent confusion in the use of the word “player” in fantasy sports, as so many sports that lend themselves to fantasy play refer to athletes as “players”. To curb the occasion of such confusion, two words will be used throughout to have the meanings set out here:

“User”—An individual, registered on a server, who engages in game play as a manager competing within any fantasy sport hosted on the server.

“Player”—Any athlete or other individual competing in a real-live sporting event from which statistics are garnered, examples of which are baseball players, basketball players, soccer players, football players, race car drivers/race cars, mixed martial artists, etc.

“Season”—Any defined interval of competition between Users; as used herein, the season may coincide with a season as recognized by the governing authorities of the various sports or it may be one defined by the Users, such as a single day of competition. Seasons can even span multiple years, if the Users so define the Season. Any interval of play for which statistics can be reliably garnered the Users can define as a season.

“League”—Any group of Users participating in competition one with another at least for the duration of a defined Season.

Fantasy sports often involves team sports and the draft process requires various player positions to be filled. The number of Players a User claims is dependent upon the rules of the sport the Player is playing and/or the manner in which each individual fantasy sports game is devised, and would therefore be any number of Players.

Fantasy sports are any of several games where Users manage a roster of Players drawn from any group for whom statistics are compiled. In each of the possible sports ranging from NFL football to MLS soccer to NASCAR racing and those many other sports for which news sources publish statistics, a fantasy sport game exploiting those statistics can be devised. Users rely upon their ability to acquire and field a team of athletes pursuant to such rules as the group of Users define or adopt. Users compete against one another receiving points for their acquired Players' real life statistics as the Players compete in their real life sports. Any injury or other impediment a Player suffers in the season is reflected in the resulting statistics a Player garners for the season in question. Similarly, any particularly good performance will shift a Player's statistics upward. In short, just as a real-life general manager in a sport must contend with the vagaries of the performance of human athletes that make up his team, so, too, does the fantasy sports User. As such, the fantasy player User gets to sample, vicariously, the sensations ABC™ Sports touts as the “thrill of victory and the agony of defeat” by imparting a personal stake in each Player's performance.

The advent of powerful computers and the Internet revolutionized fantasy sports, allowing scoring to be done entirely by computer, and, thereby, allowing leagues to develop their own scoring systems, often based on less popular statistics. In this way, for example, fantasy baseball has become a sort of real-time simulation of baseball, and allowed many fans to develop a more sophisticated understanding of how the real-world game works. According to statistics from a 2009 article in Forbes, nearly 11 million people play fantasy baseball today, in all fantasy sports, Ad Week estimates nearly 32 million people.

Generally, as the play in all fantasy sports centers on the manager's staffing decisions, the teams are rated on the performance of each roster of athletes and the associated statistics they accumulate as the season progresses. As such, the original draft and subsequent trades present User managers with their scoring opportunities. Users, as managers, often draft teams before the season begins (or very shortly thereafter). One conventional approach is to hold an auction, whereby each User as manager has a fixed amount of money to bid for athletes, and he must fill his team's roster within their budget. Another conventional approach is to perform a serpentine system draft of available athletes until all teams are filled. Because selecting and trading athletes is the key issue that defines the play of any fantasy sports game relative to mark performance as against other manager Users, each variant that changes that process creates a distinct game.

Having drafted a team, conventional fantasy play begins; the User's involvement in the outcomes, however, ends with the building of the roster. Some Users are looking for greater roles in the fantasy play. Some Users desire the opportunity to enhance their involvement by adding distinct and additional Risk/Reward moves in play after the Rosters are formed. What they are missing is an opportunity to flaunt their knowledge of the sport and the Players and to use that knowledge to profit in the fantasy sport arena.

What is needed in the art is a means of changing aspects of the fantasy sport play in each group.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

A method and system for playing a fantasy sport competition among a plurality of Users, includes transmitting a User roster comprising a User prioritized list of Players according to positions; and transmitting User selections of Enhancements, each Enhancement comprising a scoring exception from an adverse Player statistic for any Player the User roster comprises. Upon receiving the User rosters, the system stores the User roster in association with the League to facilitate scoring among the Users. Upon receiving the User selections of Enhancements, the system stores the Enhancements in association with the User roster. The system also receives statistics for Players at intervals over the course of the Season. Periodically and at the end of the Season, the system calculates scores of Users based upon the Player statistics and the Enhancements.

It is a further object of the method and system to encourage the implementation and execution of strategic choices beyond the selection of Players to fill a fantasy roster and these choices do not currently exist in fantasy sports play. The User will exercise techniques of game thinking, mechanics and gamification to engage other Users and to add additional depth to the typical fantasy sport. Using the system and method, the User's natural desire for competition and achievement allows for specific further participation even after selecting the Players for the season. For example, where a great quarterback is playing behind a line that regularly allows sacks, the User having that quarterback on his roster can enhance the statistical performance by purchasing Enhancements to “bond around” the quarterback's known weakness. The introduction of these gaming and strategic components into the existing fantasy sports equation will create mechanisms for players to have greater control over outcomes, will fundamentally alter the manner in which fantasy sports is widely known to be structured, and will thereby give birth to a Fantasy Sports Gamification System.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

Preferred and alternative examples of the present invention are described in detail below with reference to the following drawings:

FIGS. 1A and 1B depict a method and a graphical interface for facilitating a User in selection of a Player Roster;

FIG. 2A depicts a graphical interface for showing a completed player roster in the context of professional soccer;

FIG. 2B depicts a graphical interface for showing a completed player roster in the context of NASCAR;

FIG. 3 depicts a system for allowing a User to purchase specific Enhancements to the fantasy sport game; and

FIG. 4 is a block diagram depicting a server for facilitating fantasy sport play with the inclusion of Enhancements.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT

A method and system for playing a fantasy sport competition among a plurality of Users, includes transmitting a User roster comprising a User prioritized list of Players according to positions; and transmitting User selections of Enhancements, each Enhancement comprising a scoring exception from an adverse Player statistic for any Player the User roster comprises. Upon receiving the User rosters, the system stores the User roster in association with the League to facilitate scoring among the Users. Upon receiving the User selections of Enhancements, the system stores the Enhancements in association with the User roster. The system also receives statistics for Players at intervals over the course of the Season. Periodically and at the end of the Season, the system calculates scores of Users based upon the Player statistics and the Enhancements.

As has been indicated above in the Background section, the event that defines much of conventional fantasy sports play is the User's selection of Players. FIGS. 1A and 1B indicate a draft among several players. In many ways, the draft is largely conventional except that it is practiced on a client machine in interaction with at least one server on a network such as the Internet by interaction with an interface that is generally represented without diagraming the communication between the Server and the User device or client in depicting the system's interaction with the User in FIGS. 1A and 1B.

Beginning with a User's eye view of the process at FIG. 1A, a User, after appropriately signing into the system, providing such information and, where appropriate, funds as are necessary to qualify for participation, is presented with an interface screen 100 having two principal features, generally similarly configured roster elements: 1) a Player pool 101; and 2) a User Team Roster. In the presently preferred embodiment, these roster elements are as shown, but the invention could be practiced with graphic elements that display players identities such as tile-like icons shown in FIG. 1A and referred to as “tiles” 105B, 105C, and 105D and graphically represented receptacles to receive those tiles referred to as “slots”. While these same functions could as easily be represented in a range of graphic representations, even in a simplest form in textual lists representing each of the Player pool 101 and the User team roster 103, the graphic representations shown in FIG. 1A is most readily adapted to this explanation of game play.

The Player pool in this embodiment is further divided by positions. For example, such positions (P1, P2, P3, P4, P5, P6 and P7) might include a quarterback, a running back, a wide-receiver and a tight end in NFL™ football and, by contrast, a pitcher, a catcher, and a first baseman, etc. in MLB™ baseball. Similarly each sport would have its own designation for such positions. In order to facilitate display identities of the numerous players that would make up a roster, the configuration of the presently preferred embodiment may optionally be divided into pages, each page representing a position as the sport defines it. Thus the pool 101 is divided into pages such as 101P1, 101P2 etc. while the User team roster is similarly divided into pages such as 103P1, 103P2, etc. Advantageously, in the presently preferred embodiment, selecting a page on one of the pool 101 or the roster 103 will result in both the pool 101 and the roster 103 displaying the corresponding pages, e.g. selecting page 2 in the roster will cause page 2 to display in each of the roster and the pool.

In some sports, such as NASCAR™ auto racing, generally only drivers receive recognition with published statistics and so there are no distinct positions but rather a team comprising several drivers. For such sports, the pool 101 and the roster 103 may not be divided into individual positions as there is no useful distinction that would make such a division useful. In such a case, the position would not be necessary or included to selectively display distinct portions of the roster 103 and the pool 101.

In FIG. 1B, the User must now populate the User's team roster 103 from the Player candidates listed in the pool 101. This step is known generally as the “Draft.” A selected group of players constituting a league will have a draft, in which each User (playing the role of General Manager) drafts from available players. These players are kept unless they are traded or dropped, whereby they enter a pool of unowned players that any team may claim. In most leagues, no player may be owned by more than one team, although some leagues do allow for this.

In conventional drafts, there are essentially two distinct protocols for User selection from available players. The inventive use of Enhancements will work independently of which means is selected, applying as it does to either conventional means or any means for selecting Players to fill a roster. This nonlimiting explanation is provided to lend context to the discussion of the invention. In a conventional “serpentine” or “snake” draft, owners take turns drafting players in a “serpentine” method.

In an “auction” Draft, each owner has an imaginary budget which he must use to purchase all his players in an auction format. Owners take turns nominating players for open bid. The owner who bids the highest on each player receives that player, reducing their remaining budget accordingly. Auction drafts are viewed as the more fair method since every owner begins on equal ground. A few leagues use a hybrid of the two styles, selecting a portion of their roster via auction, with the remainder selected through a serpentine method.

As, for example, in the NFL, there have evolved fantasy football draft strategies made to exploit specific talents of the various players at various positions. The most commonly used strategies are value based drafting and opinion based drafting. Value base drafting entails projecting the total fantasy point value for each player in the draft and then figuring their value with respect to other players at their position, while standard cheat-sheet based drafting requires ranking each player based on your opinion of worth, or other people's opinion of said player's worth.

In that the draft is conducted by interaction with a server, Users can configure scripts that allow player selection in “live” or “auto” formats. Live Drafts involve players utilizing real-time strategy and reactionary measures to acquire specific available players. Auto-drafts use preliminary draft rankings set by each team to automate the draft cycle and establish the teams. Live drafts are often preferred to auto formats as the live drafts give rise to contingencies in selection that are believed to require more skill to exploit opportunities. As one will readily appreciate in this context, the ability to purchase Enhancements, as explained below, adds a further layer of strategy to the Draft as a User can, through the skilled purchase of Enhancements, use the Enhancements to minimize the effect a particular weakness of an otherwise talented Player might have on that Player's earned statistics, and therefore infuse further value into procuring a Player in the Draft.

By any conventional means, therefore, the presently preferred embodiment involves moving tiles 105B, 105C, and 105D from the pool 101 to the Users team roster 103 to occupy one of the slots 107A, 107B, 107C, 107D, 107E, and 107F; the invention is not so limited as the invention may be practiced in several alternate embodiments, including, as discussed above, so simple an interface as textual lists. The presently preferred embodiment is described to illustrate movement of Players from the pool 101 to the User's team roster 103 and further to illustrate prioritization of the User's team roster 103, through the use of tiles 105B, 105C, and 105D and slots 107A, 107B, 107C, 107D, 107E, and 107F as enabling a graphical user interface.

The graphic interface 100 inherently presents certain advantages in that the movement of tiles such as tile 105B inherently removes the player from the pool 101 to the roster 103 preventing duplicate designations of Players as being on another User's team roster 103.

The Draft continues as Users select Players in the manner described above until all of the slots within each position 107A, 107B, 107C, 107D, 107E, and 107F on the roster are filled. (Six positions being shown only as a non-limiting example; the invention can be practiced with more or fewer slots as selected accepted rules may dictate; naturally, for example, in the context of football, a squad of six quarterbacks makes no sense, whereas in the context of baseball, six pitchers make up a bullpen.). The User may also move a Player tile 105B from one slot 107A to another slot 107C to adjust priority among the several choices until all six of the slots 107A, 107B, 107C, 107D, 107E, and 107F are filled and ordered according to the priority the User places on each Player. Likewise, the User progresses through each of the positions, moving from page 101P1 through 101P7 of the pool and similarly through pages 103P1 through 103P7. The interface works to afford the User suitable opportunity to make selections and set priorities throughout the User team roster.

At some point, the User has completely populated, reviewed and prioritized the User's team roster 103 by filing, in this non-limiting case slot 107A with Player B's tile 105B, slot 107B with Player A's tile 105A, slot 107C with Player C's tile 105C, slot 107D with Player F's tile, slot 107E with Player E's tile 105E, slot 107F with Player D's tile 105D and has similarly filed each of the other player positions 107P2, 107P3, 107P4, 107P5, 107P6 and 107P7 to populate each to reflect selections and organize the selections at each position according to the User's priorities. Having suitably filled the roster 103, the User executes a save by clicking 111 the “Save” button on the roster 103.

With a User's roster 103 being suitably filled with selections indicating User selections and prioritization and before play in any particular event begins, a User may purchase (as that term is later defined herein) certain Enhancements to individual Players selected within his or her fantasy team. Enhancements may be of several sorts but are selected to “immunize” a Player's score in the hands of a User in the User's fantasy sports game from consequences of specific real-life performance when and if that sort of performance occurs.

By way of nonlimiting example, a User in the context of a fantasy football game, has purchased an exemplary Enhancement, “Sack Protection” for his starting quarterback for the duration of a designated game to be played after the purchase of the Enhancement. In the event the User's quarterback is sacked, the Enhancement will protect that User from the negative point repercussion that would normally occur in traditional fantasy play and nullify the positive point advantage that would normally accrue to his opponent.

As ought to be evident, these sorts of protections the Enhancements afford are focused and specific in nature. They will generally be a protection from a negative outcome. As is explained above, fantasy sports scoring is based upon statistics and those statistics are the principal means of melding scoring in and among Players that are not, themselves, playing on the same team. For that reason, statistics dominate the play of any fantasy sport. Through the application or utilization of said Enhancement, a player statistically increases the likelihood or odds of a more positive, desired or advantageous outcome. Within the context of competition, it is an object of the invention to provide one player with a potential competitive advantage over another.

In each instance, the nature of an Enhancement is very tightly defined risk with a corresponding reward for assuming that risk, when successful, so as to make the tactical advantage narrow. Much of the enjoyment of Fantasy Sports comes in selecting and executing strategic and tactical decisions in the role of General Manager of a sports team. A User, by exploiting his or her knowledge of the sport and of the Players, can parlay their skilled selections of Players to optimize the statistical results the Players earn in competition. Because of that quality of skill in play, Enhancements are not meant to overpower the normal play, specifically the decisions made in the course of a defined season or in any particular game but meant, instead, to be a protection from a specific risk and to apply narrowly across each aspect of the sport for which they apply.

Enhancements are always tightly constrained to a specific statistic that characterizes a position. For example, a Player might buy an Enhancement called “Wild Pitches” for a pitcher that would, for the purpose of scoring in the fantasy baseball game, remove from statistics the scoring results from any pitch scored as “WP”, i.e. when a pitch is too high, low, or wide of home plate for the catcher to field, thereby allowing one or more runners to advance or score during the game in question. Similarly, in the context of a fantasy hockey league, a User might purchase “Shoot Out Protection” such that any loss attributable to a shootout, i.e. a method of determining a winner in sports matches that would have otherwise been drawn or tied, wherein a single player takes one shot on goal from a specified spot, the only defender being the goalkeeper; the winning team being the one to score a goal that is unmatched by the other team. In that instance, for the purposes of the fantasy game, the User having the losing goalie for whom he or she purchased the protective Enhancement would not suffer the loss when the game's statistics are used for fantasy play. As a further explanation, it would violate the spirit of the invention to allow a User to purchase an Enhancement against the “Curse of the Bambino” such that in any match up, Players' statistics from play on the Yankees will always trump statistics earned in play for the Red Sox. Such an Enhancement would overwhelm other elements of play. A User should not be able to buy a win.

Naturally, the Enhancements are not limited to those set forth here. They are all very narrowly defined but are each of a very similar nature. They are each based upon protection from a single statistic that might otherwise be very important in determining an outcome of a fantasy sports game. For example, a User could purchase protection against a hole-in-one, which is a very narrow protection against a very well-defined risk, the risk, if matured will affect the outcome of the fantasy sports game, thereby full-filling the requirements of an Enhancement. In each instance, an Enhancement relates to particular risk and characterized by a specific event and possible effect when utilized within game play. Additionally, any particular Enhancement creates “new” and otherwise not possible scenarios under the construct of traditional, statically calculated fantasy sports.

Each of the individual Enhancements will have a specific causational relationship to an action or event that may or may not occur during a particular sporting event. In order for an Enhancement to be activated and benefit the player utilizing said Enhancement, two things must occur: first, a player must choose to activate the Enhancement or put it into play. Secondly, an action must occur during an actual sporting event that corresponds with the Enhancement that was activated or applied, thereby creating an element of risk and or chance for the player choosing to use an Enhancement. Each player, if possessing an Enhancement, may choose whether or not to apply said Enhancement prior to game play, not knowing whether or not the need for the Enhancement will actually be realized. For example, when a User chooses to utilize a “Sack Protection” Enhancement for his quarterback during a Fantasy Football contest, and should the quarterback not be sacked in the particular game for which protection is purchased, the Enhancement is still consumed in the course of the game. In the alternative event, should the User's quarterback be sacked, the Enhancement will protect that player from the negative point repercussion that would normally occur in traditional fantasy play and nullify the positive point advantage the sack would normally yield to his opponent.

To further illustrate the mechanism for effecting the enhancements, consider the sport of professional soccer depicted in FIG. 2A. In this exemplary illustration, a double captain enhancement might be purchased by a User. Just as before, the User will select a roster of players 107A-107Q. According to the conventional rules for fantasy soccer each User is allowed to choose ONE of their eleven players 107A-107Q to serve as the Captain of the squad prior to game play, in this case the number two striker 107H. The Captain's points are then doubled following a soccer match, which are added to the User's total points accrued from the match.

Describing now the exemplary Double Captain Enhancement, purchase of the Enhancement entitles the User applying the Enhancement to choose TWO members of their squad as Captains, as opposed to just one as in conventional fantasy soccer play, as described, thereby increasing the likelihood of high performance and positive point totals. The User will then have the point total from the superior performing player applied to their score, distinguishing only that particular player as the Captain. If neither scores, the Player loses a fixed number of points, say three for failing to identify a scorer in the game. The other player's point total will be treated as all of the other 10 players, 1:1 as opposed to a multiple as with the squad Captain.

Still another example, depicted in FIG. 2B, a Double-Up Manufacturer, which would be relevant in NASCAR fantasy play. According to the conventional rules for fantasy NASCAR each User is allowed to choose one car manufacturer each week of the 36 week season that they think will win that week's race. In the event the User makes an accurate prediction and the manufacturer of choice does in fact win the race, that User will be rewarded with 10 bonus points for that week's fantasy competition. For instance, a User may think that a Ford manufactured race car will win the Daytona 500 in this week's race. In the event the User is correct, they will receive the 10 bonus points for that particular week. The Double Up Manufacturer Enhancement provides the User utilizing the Enhancement with the right to choose 2 manufacturers instead of the standardized fantasy NASCAR rule of one, thereby increasing the likelihood of being accurate and earning bonus points. If neither of the manufactures wins, the User loses points, for example, ten points, though the specific number of points might be adjusted according to probability.

The graphics are not necessary to describe yet another example of a very narrowly defined Enhancement; in this case, a double point Enhancement on a selected position (player) of their choice in their roster. This, like that of the two captains enhancement bears a penalty where the player fails to score. Such an Enhancement might not even be limited to a simple doubling of score but might exist as a challenge bet wherein a User can choose to put a multiplier on a challenge which will result in the points being received for a win to be multiplied by a selected multiplier, or deducted by the same multiplier for a loss.

In yet another exemplary enhancement, a User can place a Call Out on an individual Player in their roster which will triple the points they receive from that Player if the Call Out occurs during competition. For example: if a User places a K.O (knock out) Call Out on one of their UFC fighters on their fantasy team, the Player has to knock out their opponent to earn their User triple points. If the Player fails to knock out the opponent, the User loses triple the points on that bout.

In a similar manner, a Call Out can be made for such extraordinary events as a grand slam (In baseball, a grand slam is a home run hit with all three bases occupied by baserunners (“bases loaded”), thereby scoring four runs—the most possible in one play.), or a Hole in One (In golf, a hole in one or hole-in-one occurs when a player hits the ball directly from the tee into the cup with one shot.). Other such events include the occurrence of a kick return of over eighty yards in distance, an interception within football's “red zone,” run back for a touchdown, or selecting the winner of a Penalty Shoot Out in soccer. These and other such unusual events in normal play of any of the sports that are the subject of Enhancements in fantasy play. As a result of purchasing an enhancement, a User would, in light of the occurrence of the designated one of these events would receive the benefit of a narrow exception to the scoring of ordinary fantasy play that would only occur under exceptional circumstances. In each case, the User assumes a commensurate risk of non-occurrence as well. The double-edged nature of the risk/reward paradigm keeps the User from simply purchasing an outcome. Unlike a side bet (i.e. a bet made regarding the occurrence or non-occurrence during a game of an event not directly affecting the game's final outcome), these enhancements have an effect on the underlying competition.

In reviewing FIG. 3, one sees the User 99 in interaction with a client device 201. The illustrated arrangement of the client device 201 includes a Fantasy Game App 203 including a User Interface Element 212. (The Fantasy Game App 203 may be nothing more than a browser in one “thin client” embodiment, wherein the user interface is enabled by an API at the server. This explanation is not used to limit but merely to explain the workings of at least one embodiment of the invention, thereby to satisfy the teaching requirement of the specification under the Patent Act.)

The User Interface Element 212 is described, in part, above with reference to the Draft as well as a Locker Room 208, which is simply a memory store for keeping a database of a User's selected roster and any such Enhancements a User might have purchased. (Because the information explained here as stored in the Locker Room 208 replicates what is stored in the Scoring Database 200, in at least one “thin client” embodiment, the method does not require that the Locker Room 208 actually be stored anywhere on the Client Device 201 in a nonvolatile form except as a transient element in memory for display to the User.) Any part of the depicted system shown as the Client Device may be enabled in a browser as a part of, for example, an HTML5-enabled API resident on the server and would be used through interaction with a User's browser whether on a portable device such as a smartphone, tablet or laptop, or on a larger device such as a desktop computer or even as a part of a television or set-top box interacting with a cable supplier.

A second part of the system addresses the limiting factor, i.e. game theory dictates that the Enhancement cannot simply be free and unlimited in supply or the game deteriorates to nothing resembling a competition. For that reason, Enhancements must be purchased or earned or a combination of both. The mechanics of the transaction are handled, in the system, by a merchant system 202, with in various transactions interacting with either or both of a virtual bank 204 and a bank 205 (i.e. through either a credit card or some other prepaid credit with the system) and, ultimately, a scoring database 200.

Because the price of the Enhancement, by its nature, reduces the net winnings possible, a User 99 is capable of playing a strategy by which they may enhance their chances of winning at a price or, in the reverse situation, minimize their chances of losing. Consistent with Von Neumann's postulation of the minimax strategy of Game Theory, the Enhancements allow for an additional element of control of the outcome at a price.

As shown in FIG. 3, a User acquires Enhancements by ordering them through interaction with the UI element 212, essentially shopping for them. In one embodiment of the system, the pricing for each of the Enhancements is set by the Fantasy Game App 203 and is specific to each of the Players on the roster stored in the Locker Room 208. Thus, by way of nonlimiting example, if a User has Ben Roethlisberger of the Pittsburgh Steelers on the User's roster and wishes to purchase “Sack Protection” for Week 4 of the NFL 2013 Season, the price of the protection might be set much higher given the three sacks he suffered in Week 3 against the Chicago Bears. By the same token, the system would prevent the purchase of “Sack Protection” relative to Marshawn Lynch of the Seattle Seahawks as he is a Running Back and such protection would not be meaningful relative to him. In an alternate embodiment of the system, Enhancements would attach to the full roster and not to a single player and would protect a User's team for the duration of the event, e.g. a “Week” in the NFL. Either embodiment is appropriately claimed below as within the scope of the invention.

Once a price is set, further optional rules are possible to further limit the use of the Enhancements. For example, in one nonlimiting embodiment, payment occurs in either of two means:

1. Through purchase, whereas the total value is paid for utilizing an accepted Bank credit or debit card.

2. Through use of a combination of an accepted Bank credit or debit card and virtual currency, herein referred to as the Token, except that no Token or Tokens may be used to satisfy more than 50% of the total purchase price.

While the purchasing scheme above is not limiting, it is included to demonstrate that the value of the enhancements sounds both in the real and in the virtual worlds and that constraints can be used to modify the price and frequency of use of the Enhancement, thereby giving further value to the well-timed employment of the Enhancement in a close or hard-fought season. Each purchase is effected through interaction with the UI Element 212 in its communication with the Merchant system. In accord with the rules, a User 99 may make such purchases as the User's available credit in the respective Virtual Bank 204 and the Bank 205 will allow in such proportions as the relevant rules require.

To further explain the working of the Merchant system 202, it is presumed that each User 99 will have an account and profile such that the Merchant system 202 can transact business with each of the Virtual Bank 204 and the Bank 205. In some embodiments, a User 99 has placed a credit card at the disposal of the Merchant system for the purpose of satisfying transaction prices in real money. Similarly, wins from prior games or particular performance of the User 99 may have allowed the User 99 to accumulate credits in the Virtual Bank 204.

Using the UI Element 212, the User 99 within the Fantasy Game App 203, where, in one embodiment, a “Game Store” is presented to the User 99 through an API allowing the User to browse for and select various Enhancements for Purchase. By hitting an “Acquire Enhancement” button, the User 99 would be shown a selection of Enhancements specific to the particular sport, and indeed in an embodiment described above, specific to the particular Players on the User's roster. Because the User 99 will have established a profile and roster relative to that sport, the Fantasy Game App will display each available Enhancement, along with the specific nature of the Enhancement and the cost for that Enhancement. The User 99 would then make selections and the Enhancements would be placed in a “shopping cart” for transfer to the Locker Room 208 once the User 99 pays for the Enhancements.

The Fantasy Game App 203 would then prompt the User 99 to consummate the sale at a “check out” page where the Enhancement(s) previously selected would be listed with their corresponding cost(s) along with the total amount of cost for the purchase. Advantageously, in some embodiments, a User 99 will also be shown and must agree to the Terms and Conditions of the purchase. After agreement, in applicable, the Fantasy Game App 203 would provide the User 99 with an option to apply as many of the User's Tokens as might be available according to the User's balance and such rules as are applicable to the purchase of the Enhancements. To repeat the example above, the User 99 would be able to apply up to a value not to exceed that of 50% of the total cost of the Enhancement purchase price. Once any Tokens (virtual currency) have been applied to the purchase as those are negotiated through the Virtual Bank 204, the Merchant system 202 will now attempt to negotiate payment of the remaining total purchase price through the Bank 205. In one embodiment, the Fantasy Game App 203, will generate a payment page where the User 99 will be asked to populate the necessary credit/debit card information to pay for the total balance of the purchase. In another embodiment, the payment information is saved along with the User's profile. In either instance, the User is charged through interaction with the Bank 205, at the User's direction.

The client device 201 operated by a User 99 to purchase Enhancements using the merchant system 202. The modules, systems, and devices illustrated with respect to FIG. 3 may be differently arranged, operated, or constituted in other embodiments. For example, the Fantasy Game App 203 and the scoring database 200 may be merged as a single system and operated by a single entity. In other embodiments, a third party provider may be present to either authenticate a User or to replace one or more functions of the merchant system 202 or to provide the functions of the Fantasy Game App 203.

The Fantasy Game App 203 includes a user interface element 212. The UI element 212 may be any control, field, aspect, or other portion of the UI 212. For example, the UI element 212 may be a text field, a drop down menu, a selection group, a chooser, a button, a hidden field, or the like. In some embodiments, the user 10 may interact with the UI element 212, such as by clicking and dragging a movable control, editing a text field or pressing a button. In other embodiments, UI element 212 is inactive with respect to direct user interaction. For example, the UI element 212 may be a draggable element within a list control and/or a text element in a document tree that represents the UI 212.

As described above, the User 99 has determined a roster through participation in the draft. This roster as associated with the User 99 is stored in the Scoring Database 200 through interaction with the Fantasy Game App 203 in a manner as described above. The purpose of the Scoring Database 200 is to ascribe scores to each of the Users participating. To do so, there must be an accurate indication of the Players upon whose performance and statistics capturing that performance will yield the User's score. The indication may be a textual representation of identity of the User team roster, such as a fictitious name or code that includes an alphabetic string (e.g., “HAL”), a numeric string (e.g., “1001”), an alphanumeric string (e.g., “APPT7”), a symbolic string (e.g., “%**!”), or some combination of the preceding. The indication of the User team roster may also or instead be or include a binary (e.g., not human-readable) representation of the User team roster item. In some embodiments, the name or code may be generated by the UI based upon a name given by the User. In some instances, the selection of a particular sport may generate an indication specifically for that sport.

In another embodiment, the indication may be a network identifier that identifies (directly or indirectly) a network-accessible computing system or module that is configured to provide the Player Pool information for that selected sport upon request. For example, the indication may be a network address, a host name, a uniform resource identifier, or the like. For example, the Fantasy Game App 203 may instruct the User 99 to enter (e.g., type or copy-paste) the indication of the User team roster 103 into the UI element 212. In another approach, the Fantasy Game App 203 may automatically modify the UI element 212 to include the indication of the User team roster associated with such Enhancements as the User 99 has purchased. For example, the Merchant system 202 may access the Scoring Database 200 (e.g., by looking up its identifier in a DOM or other document data structure) and then modify the data stored in the Scoring Database 200 (e.g., slots 107 in the User team roster) to also include the indication of such Enhancements purchased through the User's interaction with Fantasy Game App 203 and necessary to suitably reflects the scoring in light of the purchased Enhancements.

The Scoring Database 200 (or, in an alternate as described above, the Merchant system 202 in communication with the Scoring Database 200) first receives and then interprets the received statistics and performs the appropriate or necessary functions to score each of the User's rosters in accord with the Enhancements that each User has purchased. Having determined scores, the Scoring Database 200 presents them to the Fantasy Game App 203 for displaying standings, displaying specific User statistics in response to queries from the User 99 through the UI Element 212 such as for scoring for distinct positions in the roster 103.

Note that the illustrated arrangement of modules may be differently constituted in some embodiments. For example, the Virtual Bank 204 may be incorporated dynamically into the Merchant system 202. As another example, the Fantasy Game App 203 and the Scoring Database 200 may be integrated as a single system, rather than as distinct systems as shown. Furthermore, the Scoring Database 200 may be a component of one of the other modules, such as the Locker Room 208 or the Merchant system 202.

Example embodiments described herein provide applications, tools, data structures and other support to implement a Fantasy Game App 203 to be used to provide a platform for gaming. Other embodiments of the described techniques may be used for other purposes, including for extending a user interface as in the UI element 212 generally and/or using an existing communication protocol or data records to provide, carry, or transmit information beyond that which the protocol is designed to represent or transport. In the following description, numerous specific details are set forth, such as data formats and code sequences, and the like, in order to provide a thorough understanding of the described techniques. The embodiments described also can be practiced without some of the specific details described herein, or with other specific details, such as changes with respect to the ordering of the logic, different logic, or the like. Thus, the scope of the techniques and/or functions described are not limited by the particular order, selection, or decomposition of aspects described with reference to any particular routine, module, component, and the like.

FIG. 4 is an example block diagram of an example alternate embodiment computing system 300 for implementing a Scoring Database 200 according to another examplary embodiment. In particular, FIG. 4 shows a computing system 300 that may be utilized to implement the Fantasy Game App 203.

Note that one or more general purpose or special purpose computing systems/devices suitably instructed may be used to implement the Fantasy Game App 203. In addition, the computing system 300 may comprise one or more distinct computing systems/devices and may span distributed locations. Furthermore, each block shown may represent one or more such blocks as appropriate to a specific embodiment or may be combined with other blocks. Also, the Fantasy Game App 203 may be implemented in software, hardware, firmware, or in some combination to achieve the capabilities described herein.

In the embodiment shown, computing system 300 comprises a Fantasy Game App 203, a display 302, one or more Central Processing Units (“CPU”) 303, Input/Output devices 304 (e.g., keyboard, mouse, CRT or LCD display, and the like), other computer-readable media 305, and network connections 306 connected to a network 350. The Fantasy Game App 203 is shown residing in memory within the computing system 300. In other embodiments, some portion of the contents, some or all of the components of the Fantasy Game App 300 may be stored on and/or transmitted over the other computer-readable media 305. The components of the Fantasy Game App 203 preferably execute on one or more CPUs 303 and facilitate the reconciliation of rosters and ultimately the scoring options as described herein. Other code or programs 330 (e.g., an administrative interface, a Web server, and the like) and potentially other data repositories, such as data repository 320, also reside in the memory 301, and preferably execute on one or more CPUs 303. Of note, one or more of the components in FIG. 4 may not be present in any specific implementation. For example, some embodiments may not provide other computer-readable media 305 or a display 302.

The Fantasy Game App 203, in one embodiment, includes a widget provider 311, a Enhancement manager 312, a user interface manager 315, a application program interface (API) 316, and a data store 318. In other embodiments, functions performed by one or more of the illustrated components may be performed externally to the Fantasy Game App 203.

The Fantasy Game App 203 interacts via the network 350 with client devices 201, merchant systems 202, and Scoring Database 200. The network 350 may be any combination of media (e.g., twisted pair, coaxial, fiber optic, radio frequency), hardware (e.g., routers, switches, repeaters, transceivers), and protocols (e.g., TCP/IP, UDP, Ethernet, Wi-Fi, WiMAX) that facilitate communication between remotely situated humans and/or devices. In some embodiments, the network 350 may be or include multiple distinct communication channels or mechanisms. The client devices 201 include mobile phones, smart phones, personal digital assistants, laptop computers, tablet computers, desktop computers, and the like.

Users or others (e.g., customer service representatives) may use the client devices 201 to construct User team rosters 103 or order other items via the merchant systems 202. The merchant systems 202 in turn prepare User profiles, invite Users to play, facilitate online chats and conveys statistics garnered from the Scoring Database 200. The Scoring Database 200 is used to, at least, garner and store Player statistics from sources including from third party vendors.

The widget provider 311 manages the storage and distribution of various modules, blocks, widgets, or the like to enable enhance functionality and to increase the appeal of the game during play, such as an online chat between Users in a particular game to enable “smack talk” among the Users. Another such widget might distribute latest Player interview clips to Users having selected that Player on their User team roster. For example, a developer may create a new widget and provide the widget to the Scoring Database 200 for storage and further distribution by the widget provider 311. The widget provider 311 may respond to requests received from client devices 201 or merchant systems 202 during the season. For example, a User may use one of the client devices 201 to interact with a Web page that includes a link to a Bank page that gives Users credits for later games based upon instantaneous standings, the link causing a widget to be retrieved by the client device 201 from the widget provider 311.

The Enhancement manager 312 performs Enhancement generation and redemption services. For example, given a User 99 and a User roster, the Enhancement manager 312 may generate a database entry that is configured to represent that User's purchase information. The Enhancement manager 312 may also, given an indication of an Enhancement or other identifier, respond with the other User in a game specified by the identifier to indicate the User's redemption of a particular Enhancement. In some embodiments, some or all of the logic of the Enhancement manager may be incorporated into a widget or a Fantasy Game App 203.

The UI manager 315 provides a view and a controller that facilitate user interaction with the Fantasy Game App 203 and its various components. For example, the UI manager 315 may provide interactive access to the Locker Room 208 to make adjustments to the starting line up or to facilitate trades of Players with other Users, such that users or systems can obtain or configure widgets, generate Enhancements, reconcile scores in light of Enhancements, and the like. In some embodiments, access to the functionality of the UI manager 315 may be provided via a Web server, possibly executing as one of the other programs 330. In such embodiments, a user operating a Web browser (or other client) executing on one of the devices/systems 201, 202, and/or 203 can interact with the Roster reconciler 200 via the UI manager 315.

The data store 318 is used by the other modules of the Fantasy Game App 203 to store and/or communicate information. The components of the Fantasy Game App 203 use the data store 318 to record various types of information, including widgets and other controls, information about scoring and statistics provided by third-party vendors. Although the components of the Computer System 300 are described as communicating primarily through the data store 318, other communication mechanisms are contemplated, including message passing, function calls, pipes, sockets, shared memory, and the like.

In an example embodiment, components/modules of the Fantasy Game App 203 are implemented using standard programming techniques. For example, the Fantasy Game App 203 may be implemented as a “native” executable running on the CPU 303, along with one or more static or dynamic libraries. In other embodiments, the Fantasy Game App 203 may be implemented as instructions processed by a virtual machine. In general, a range of programming languages known in the art may be employed for implementing such example embodiments, including representative implementations of various programming language paradigms, including but not limited to, object-oriented (e.g., Java, C++, C#, Visual Basic.NET, Smalltalk, and the like), functional (e.g., ML, Lisp, Scheme, and the like), procedural (e.g., C, Pascal, Ada, Modula, and the like), scripting (e.g., Perl, Ruby, Python, JavaScript, VBScript, and the like), and declarative (e.g., SQL, Prolog, and the like).

The embodiments described above may also use either well-known or proprietary synchronous or asynchronous client-server computing techniques. Also, the various components may be implemented using more monolithic programming techniques, for example, as an executable running on a single CPU computer system, or alternatively decomposed using a variety of structuring techniques known in the art, including but not limited to, multiprogramming, multithreading, client-server, or peer-to-peer, running on one or more computer systems each having one or more CPUs. Some embodiments may execute concurrently and asynchronously, and communicate using message passing techniques. Equivalent synchronous embodiments are also supported. Also, other functions could be implemented and/or performed by each component/module, and in different orders, and by different components/modules, yet still achieve the described functions.

In addition, programming interfaces to the data stored as part of the Fantasy Game App 203, such as in the data store 318, can be available by standard mechanisms such as through C, C++, C#, and Java APIs; libraries for accessing files, databases, or other data repositories; through scripting languages such as XML; or through Web servers, FTP servers, or other types of servers providing access to stored data. The data store 318 may be implemented as one or more database systems, file systems, or any other technique for storing such information, or any combination of the above, including implementations using distributed computing techniques.

Different configurations and locations of programs and data are contemplated for use with techniques of described herein. In addition, the modules may reside on client or server systems that are physical or virtual computing. Also, one or more of the modules may themselves be distributed, pooled or otherwise grouped, such as for load balancing, reliability or security reasons. A variety of distributed computing techniques are appropriate for implementing the components of the illustrated embodiments in a distributed manner including but not limited to TCP/IP sockets, RPC, RMI, HTTP, Web Services (XML-RPC, JAX-RPC, SOAP, and the like). Other variations are possible. Also, other functionality could be provided by each component/module, or existing functionality could be distributed amongst the components/modules in different ways, yet still achieve the functions described herein.

Furthermore, in some embodiments, some or all of the components of the Fantasy Game App 203 may be implemented or provided in other manners, such as at least partially in firmware and/or hardware, including, but not limited to one or more application-specific integrated circuits (“ASICs”), standard integrated circuits, controllers executing appropriate instructions, and including microcontrollers and/or embedded controllers, field-programmable gate arrays (“FPGAs”), complex programmable logic devices (“CPLDs”), and the like. Some or all of the system components and/or data structures may also be stored as contents (e.g., as executable or other machine-readable software instructions or structured data) on a computer-readable medium (e.g., as a hard disk; a memory; a computer network or cellular wireless network or other data transmission medium; or a portable media article to be read by an appropriate drive or via an appropriate connection, such as a DVD or flash memory device) so as to enable or configure the computer-readable medium and/or one or more associated computing systems or devices to execute or otherwise use or provide the contents to perform at least some of the described techniques. Some or all of the components and/or data structures may be stored as non-transitory contents on tangible, non-transitory storage mediums. Some or all of the system components and data structures may also be stored as data signals (e.g., by being encoded as part of a carrier wave or included as part of an analog or digital propagated signal) on a variety of computer-readable transmission mediums, which are then transmitted, including across wireless-based and wired/cable-based mediums, and may take a variety of forms (e.g., as part of a single or multiplexed analog signal, or as multiple discrete digital packets or frames). Such computer program products may also take other forms in other embodiments. Accordingly, embodiments of this disclosure may be practiced with other computer system configurations.

While the preferred embodiment of the invention has been illustrated and described, as noted above, many changes can be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. Accordingly, the scope of the invention is not limited by the disclosure of the preferred embodiment. Instead, the invention should be determined entirely by reference to the claims that follow. 

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:
 1. A method for playing a fantasy sport competition over a defined Season among a plurality of Users, the plurality of Users defining a League, the method comprising: by a client device having instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, the device being communicatively connected to a network: transmitting a User roster comprising a User prioritized list of Players according to positions; and transmitting User selections of Enhancements, each Enhancement comprising a scoring exception for a selected Player statistic for one of any Player the User roster comprises; by the server having instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, the server being communicatively connected to the network: upon receiving the User rosters, storing the User roster in association with the League; upon receiving the User selections of Enhancements storing the Enhancements in association with the User roster; receiving statistics for Players over the course of the Season; and based upon the statistics and the Enhancements, reckoning a User score for competition over the course of the Season.
 2. The method of claim 1, further comprising; by the server: wherein reckoning a User score is reckoning a User score for each User the League comprises.
 3. The method of claim 2, further comprising: By the server: generating standings based upon reckoned User scores.
 4. The method of claim 1, wherein transmitting User selections to suitably order Players in the User roster further comprises: by the client device: transmitting information identifying the User; and receiving a list of Players available for User selection ordered according to Player positions; and transmitting a User selection of at least one Player; and by the server; in response to receiving the User selection of at least one Player, removing the at least one Player the User selection comprises from the list of Players available for User selection; and transmitting the list of Players available for User selection to a second User the League comprises, the second User selected in accordance with procedures for a Draft.
 5. The method of claim 1 wherein receiving Invited User rosters from each additional User further comprises: by the server: wherein receiving statistics for Players over the course of the Season further comprises selecting from among the received statistics at least one Enhancement-capable statistic shown to be correlated to adverse outcomes of individual games relied upon to generate the received statistics; and defining at least one Enhancement based upon the selected Enhancement-capable statistic for offering to a User in a subsequent Season.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein the transmitting User selections of Enhancements further comprises: by the server: receiving compensation from the User in the form of funds belonging to the User from either one or both of a Bank and a Virtual Bank.
 7. A system for facilitating Users in the play of fantasy sport games within a League of Users for a User-defined Season, the system comprising: a Merchant system residing upon a server having instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, the server being communicatively connected to the network, the Merchant system to receive: a User Player roster from each User, comprising a plurality of Players listed according to a position and in an order determined by a User's prioritized list of Players for that position; and at least one Enhancement, each Enhancement comprising a scoring exception from an adverse Player statistic for any Player the User roster comprises, from a plurality of registered Users each User using a client device to transmit the request, the client device communicatively connected with merchant system through the network; and a Scoring Database, communicatively connected to the Merchant system, the Database comprising: a memory having instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium; a data store containing each of the User Player rosters and data reflecting the Enhancements each User has purchased, as the data is received from the merchant system; a means to receive statistics regarding the Player from third party providers; and a central processing unit which, in response to the instructions calculates scores for each User based upon that User's roster and purchased Enhancements.
 8. The system of claim 7, wherein the instruction causing the center processing unit to reconcile the User rosters comprise instructions to perform the method including: for each Enhancement, suppressing those adverse statistics for which the User has purchased the Enhancement.
 9. The system of claim 7, wherein the central processing unit calculates scores for each User from the Roster and transmits the scores to each User at designated intervals, each interval being a subset of the Season.
 10. The system of claim 7, wherein the central processing unit reviews Players' statistics and correlates statistics with outcomes of games to determine such statistics as would be suitable for offering as Enhancements in subsequent Seasons.
 11. The system of claim 7, wherein the User negotiates the purchase of at least one Enhancement by interacting with the Merchant system.
 12. The system of claim 11, wherein the purchase of the Enhancement includes receiving funds associated with the User from one of a virtual bank and a bank to satisfy the purchase price.
 13. The system of claim 12, wherein the funds associated with the User in the virtual bank include funds earned in User participation in earlier Seasons.
 14. A computer having instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium, the device being communicatively connected to a network to facilitate playing a fantasy sport competition among a plurality of Users, the computer comprising: instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium causing the central processing unit to perform the following operations: receiving User rosters from each User, each User roster comprising that User's prioritized list of Players according to positions; receiving from an User request to purchase at least one Enhancement, each Enhancement comprising a scoring exception from an adverse Player statistic for any Player the User roster comprises; and for each requested Enhancement, transacting the purchase by receiving funds associated with the requesting User on deposit in one of a virtual bank and a real bank.
 15. The computer of claim 14, further comprising; receiving Player statistics reflecting actual play during a relevant period; and generating scores for each of the User according to the received Player statistics for each Player and the Enhancements each User has purchased.
 16. The computer of claim 15, further comprising: generating standings based upon comparing compiled scores for each of the User and the additional Users.
 17. The computer of claim 14, wherein receiving from an User request to purchase at least one Enhancement further comprises: receiving information identifying the User; determining User eligibility to purchase Enhancements with funds from the virtual bank; and consummating the purchase of the Enhancements with a combination of funds from the virtual bank and the bank based upon the User eligibility.
 18. The computer of claim 10 wherein receiving User rosters from each User, each User roster comprising that User's prioritized list of Players according to positions further comprises: periodically receiving prioritized User rosters from the User modifying previously received User rosters to change one of priority, included Players based upon one of a trade, a purchase, a retirement, and an injury relative to the Players, and a User determined reordering of priority.
 19. The computer of claim 14, wherein an Enhancement has a limited duration in time, such duration being less than a Season.
 20. The computer of claim 14, wherein an Enhancement is specifically applicable to a specific Player. 